# What's your obscure hipster Beatles reference? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882 "2018-05-09T22:34:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/41 "2018-05-10T13:30:42Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > I hadn’t heard that. [Here’s the clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v2gfElEVYU). I’d put that under “unproven”, as he’s doing something that’s musically quite elementary (major chord with two notes of chromatically descending bass) and, in any case, it was Paul who came up with the flute mellotron intro for that song, but maybe John’s melodica doodling had lodged in his mind. > > * * * > > Lennon once asked producer George Martin to make a song sound like an orange (“Sun King” apparently). Thanks for finding that. Of course, in my memory, he played it note for note as it was eventually recorded. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/42 "2018-05-10T13:33:46Z")
The music for “Jealous Guy”, which appeared on Lennon’s 1971 solo album _Imagine_, was composed in 1968 when the Beatles were in India, but set to different lyrics. [Here’s a 1968 demo of it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79wFG5BWpM), with the title “Child of Nature”. “Look at Me”, also on _Imagine_, dates from this time as well, and both songs might have appeared on the “White album”. [Here’s the demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi0vnBYjzfY) for that song. I don’t know why these recordings didn’t appear on the _Anthology_ collection. Likewise, the [demo of “Dear Prudence”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEf27IySbqA) should have been on it. Correction: “Look at Me” was on Lennon’s 1970 _John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band_ album not _Imagine_. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/43 "2018-05-10T13:35:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, me, too. It’s possible that it was inspired there, I suppose, but, like you said, take a major chord and just chromatically descend the bassline isn’t exactly novel. I was expecting much more than that, given the description. It’s just some guy noodling around on a melodica to me. I gotta run off to work, so I can’t do research, but I don’t think that 20 sec clip was “it.” I totally agree that that bit of riffing would be unconnected to Strawberry. A mystery! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/44 "2018-05-10T13:42:22Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Actually my favorite obscure Beatles reference is, “It’s a fiendish thingy!” which has nothing to do with their music. I use “It’s a fiendish thingy, Ringo!” Also, “He’s very clean.” and “I now declare this bridge … open.” in a high pitched voice. But if you want really obscure, start quoting the _Magical Mystery Tour_ movie. “Don’t get historical!” ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/45 "2018-05-10T14:00:33Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > My obscure hipster reference was that I was listening to them when I was 5 years old and they were still recording. I had a little transistor radio that I’d hide under my pillow, and after my mom put me to bed I would turn on the radio and listen to the only rock station in town, which at that time played the Beatles all the time. They were by far my favorite band. Me too! My aunt was a teenager (9 years older than me). So I was about 5 and she was 14-15 in 1966. She was a Beatles FANATIC! I remember she took me to the theater to see Help! one Saturday afternoon. I also remember after the movie ended she told me to duck down. We stayed and watched the movie again. Parts of that movie have stayed with me forever. When I watch it now, parts are still familiar from back then. My favorite Beatle was Ringo and still is. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/46 "2018-05-10T14:26:48Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m trying to think of what others there might be for me. I mean, there’s “Hey Bulldog,” but I have a feeling that’s been getting its share of respect lately and, while not one of the first thirty songs people think of when they think of the Beatles, it’s kind of been acknowledged by the hipster set as being a cool song… I think. Actually, the “Hey Bulldog” resurgence came as an inside joke for subscribers of satellite radio. One of the morning DJs for the Pop channel downloaded the song to play a clip as part of their banter. It somehow screwed up their computer so that the song became the only song they could play, so for several hours the pop channel became the “Hey Bulldog” channel as the song played on repeat over and over until they fixed the computer issue. This cascaded into listeners calling in to request the song, allowing it to make it onto the most requested song list for the week. ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/47 "2018-05-10T14:52:49Z")
**Inigo Montoya** stole one of mine. I use it when I see an A/V cart or a desk with pop outs for cables. These will often come with covers that can be removed entirely or that have a cutout in them to keep cables tidy or tight in the hole. One day I popped out one of these covers, put it in my pocket and said . . . well, you know. The other is “Turn left at Greenland”. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/48 "2018-05-10T14:55:13Z")
I wasn’t born until 1979 so all of my Beatles knowledge comes from, I guess, obsessive research. Obsessively listening to all their albums (ok, more like from _Rubber Soul_ on up), reading lots of books about them, watching all the movies several times, devouring the \*Anthology \*stuff. So “deep cuts” don’t seem like “deep cuts” to me since I wasn’t around in 1967 to know what was hot or not at the time. I can’t say there is a single song of theirs, from their last 8 albums, that I can’t jam along to. That being said I agree with all the others who found their movies to be immensely quoteable. My favorites, aside from “fiendish thingy” and “he’s a very clean man” are actually quotes by other characters in _Help!_. There’s “go to the window!” and “Hey, you, Be-a-tle!” and they make my brother and I laugh and that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/49 "2018-05-10T14:55:27Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Actually, the “Hey Bulldog” resurgence came as an inside joke for subscribers of satellite radio. One of the morning DJs for the Pop channel downloaded the song to play a clip as part of their banter. It somehow screwed up their computer so that the song became the only song they could play, so for several hours the pop channel became the “Hey Bulldog” channel as the song played on repeat over and over until they fixed the computer issue. > This cascaded into listeners calling in to request the song, allowing it to make it onto the most requested song list for the week. Interesting. I had no idea of this story. All I remember is that way back in 2003, while living in Hungary, one of my Hungarian musician friends had the opening guitar riff of “Hey Bulldog” as his ringtone, so I thought it must have been somewhat established as a cool reference by then. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/50 "2018-05-10T17:39:04Z")
It seems to me that _Beatles for Sale_ is the most overlooked-slash-disparaged of the canonical albums (not counting _Yellow Submarine_). Between the glorious Beatlemania of _A Hard Day’s Night_ and the growing sophistication of _Help!_, it’s often looked on as a filler album, the post-Beatlemania hangover album. So I hipsterishly advocate for it as a real bright spot in the catalog, as good in its own way as _Help!_, particularly for the singing. If you love to hear John and Paul harmonizing together, this is the album for you: “Baby’s in Black,” “I’m a Loser,” “Every Little Thing,” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” … hell, pretty much every song not sung by George or Ringo has indelible interplay between John and Paul on vocals. And while they sang together again on subsequent albums (obviously), no album showcases their harmony singing as well as _Beatles for Sale_. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/51 "2018-05-10T17:48:01Z")
He’s in the uh. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/52 "2018-05-10T18:02:45Z")
I don’t know if mere trivia tidbits count for this thread, and it’s certainly not from a hipster, but I’ll post it anyway. I’ve always wondered what a “Ticket To Ride” was until I read about it somewhere some years ago. It’s a phrase from their Hamburg days. Hamburg is an old harbor town and has a famous red light district in St. Pauli with the infamous [Reeperbahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeperbahn). That’s exactly where the Beatles played in their Hamburg days and so they got very immersed in that scene. Now prostitution still wasn’t legal in Germany in the early sixties, but tolerated, but there was one requirement: the prostitutes had to have regular medical exams for STDs and other infectious deseases, and the police often checked for their doctor’s certificate of being disease free, and the prostitutes were only allowed to work with a current certificate. This certificate was (maybe still is) called “Bockschein”, and that’s what a “Ticket To Ride” really is. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/53 "2018-05-10T18:10:06Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > It seems to me that _Beatles for Sale_ is the most overlooked-slash-disparaged of the canonical albums (not counting _Yellow Submarine_). Between the glorious Beatlemania of _A Hard Day’s Night_ and the growing sophistication of _Help!_, it’s often looked on as a filler album, the post-Beatlemania hangover album. So I hipsterishly advocate for it as a real bright spot in the catalog, as good in its own way as _Help!_, particularly for the singing. If you love to hear John and Paul harmonizing together, this is the album for you: “Baby’s in Black,” “I’m a Loser,” “Every Little Thing,” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” … hell, pretty much every song not sung by George or Ringo has indelible interplay between John and Paul on vocals. And while they sang together again on subsequent albums (obviously), no album showcases their harmony singing as well as _Beatles for Sale_. I agree! Being a gringo, I grew up with _Beatles '65_ instead (a cassette, at age 9), which has a little over half the same songs. So, I didn’t discover Paul’s little gem “What You’re Doing” until a few years ago. And, I associate this period with John’s “I’ll Be Back\*” – not until decades later did I realize it was for (UK) _A Hard Day’s Night_, which makes it all the more innovative. (\*Speaking of parallel major/minor – see the “Things We Said Today” discussion, above) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/54 "2018-05-10T18:18:29Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I don’t know if mere trivia tidbits count for this thread, and it’s certainly not from a hipster, but I’ll post it anyway. I’ve always wondered what a “Ticket To Ride” was until I read about it somewhere some years ago. It’s a phrase from their Hamburg days. Hamburg is an old harbor town and has a famous red light district in St. Pauli with the infamous [Reeperbahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeperbahn). That’s exactly where the Beatles played in their Hamburg days and so they got very immersed in that scene. Now prostitution still wasn’t legal in Germany in the early sixties, but tolerated, but there was one requirement: the prostitutes had to have regular medical exams for STDs and other infectious deseases, and the police often checked for their doctor’s certificate of being disease free, and the prostitutes were only allowed to work with a current certificate. This certificate was (maybe still is) called “Bockschein”, and that’s what a “Ticket To Ride” really is. Is that really true? It has the whiff of urban legend about it, and such a direct and vulgar euphemism “ticket to ride” doesn’t sound like the Beatles style at all. Looking it up, I do see that there is a story by the journalist Don Short saying John Lennon told him that story, but that he could have been joking (as was John’s way. He also said the inspiration for Eleanor Rigby was “two queers,” so it’s hard to take him seriously.) The song seems to me to quite simply be about a woman leaving her S.O. I don’t think there is or needs to be a secret meaning to it (and, besides, it doesn’t really make any sense. She was, what, living with this guy until she got her certificate certifying a clean bill of health and, out the door she goes back to hooking? That’s just gotta be John fucking around with the journalist.) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/55 "2018-05-10T18:27:48Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Is that really true? It has the whiff of urban legend about it, and such a direct and vulgar euphemism “ticket to ride” doesn’t sound like the Beatles style at all. Looking it up, I do see that there is a story by the journalist Don Short saying John Lennon told him that story, but that he could have been joking (as was John’s way. He also said the inspiration for Eleanor Rigby was “two queers,” so it’s hard to take him seriously.) The song seems to me to quite simply be about a woman leaving her S.O. I don’t think there is or needs to be a secret meaning to it (and, besides, it doesn’t really make any sense. She was, what, living with this guy until she got her certificate certifying a clean bill of health and, out the door she goes back to hooking? That’s just gotta be John fucking around with the journalist.) You could be absolutely right that this was one of John’s jokes, and I have not the slightest proof of authenticity, not even a cite, only a memory of something I read long ago. But I can at least vouch for the fact that the prostitutes’ “Bockschein” was/is a real thing. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/56 "2018-05-10T18:32:19Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > “Hello, this Is John speaking, with his voice.” > “Our story begins in Corsica…” > “Matches”, “Candles” > “Please don’t bring your banjo back, I know where it’s been.” Page two. It’s just someone’s bad handwroting. It’s just a plug for the film. We’re right off jellybabies. Those records are the best summary of the growth and dissolution of the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/57 "2018-05-10T18:48:07Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > You could be absolutely right that this was one of John’s jokes, and I have not the slightest proof of authenticity, not even a cite, only a memory of something I read long ago. But I can at least vouch for the fact that the prostitutes’ “Bockschein” was/is a real thing. Oh, that part I had no problem believing, knowing how prostitution works in Europe and having taken a stroll down the Reeperbahn for historical context. It was more that that was what the song was about. It doesn’t really make much sense, and it doesn’t feel to me like the kind of wordplay the Beatles would use. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/58 "2018-05-10T19:53:09Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > … and having taken a stroll down the Reeperbahn for historical context. I like that :D. Best excuse for going to the Reeperbahn ever, in real doper fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/59 "2018-05-10T20:32:05Z")
One of my all-time-favorite love songs is “I Will,” Paul’s first song about Linda. Few people (outside this thread) know either the song or that tidbit. Regarding “Ticket to Ride,” _The Beatles A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Song_ mentions the Don Short story (“he could have been joing – you always had to be careful with John like that”) but starts with this bit that Paul told his biographer: Paul’s cousin Betty Robbins and her husband Mike ran the Bow Bars in Union Street, Ryde (on the Isle of Wight), and Paul and John had visited them there. > [@ftg](#): > > Also, “He’s very clean.” and “I now declare this bridge … open.” in a high pitched voice. Those are the two quotes I say all the time that no one ever gets. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882/60 "2018-05-10T22:53:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Is that really true? It has the whiff of urban legend about it, and such a direct and vulgar euphemism “ticket to ride” doesn’t sound like the Beatles style at all. “She’s the kind of a girl who makes the News of the World.” News of the World was a tabloid known for their salacious exposes of sex scandals. Lady Madonna is quite clearly a prostitute. “Wonder how she manages to make ends meet.” “Ticket to Ride” is be no more direct than either of these. Probably less so to their audience, who wouldn’t know about German regulations, but would know about the News of the World. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-obscure-hipster-beatles-reference/813882.md?page=4)